77gr TMK .223 Loading Questions

[ecn515]

I'm currently loading 77gr TMK's as my long range ammo for 3 gun and have a few questions. 

 

What brass are you using? Are you headstamp sorting? More specifically if you are using LC brass are you sorting by the year?

I'm currently reloading all my long range ammo into Federal casings (FC) with very good results. With Varget I'm seeing about a 7 FPS SD. Unfortunately my supply of Federal cases is dwindling. I've heard that most people prefer to load into LC brass, but if so are you concerned with matching years as well? I have a large pile of LC brass but it is all of mixed years, just curious if I am to go down that path if I should be trying to sort out all my cases by year or just treat all LC cases as the same. 

 

With the charge of Varget I use it takes up a massive amount of case capacity and these long bullets must be seated down pretty far so when seating the bullets my seating die leaves a pretty good indentation into the bullets, I attempted to remedy this by polishing out my seating stem but it didn't seem to really make a difference. So my question there would be if you are using Varget, have you found a die that works well with these bullets? Or have you found another powder that works well and isn't as volumeous? 

[TonytheTiger]

I use LC brass and tried the headstamp sorting and weight grouping for awhile but didn't see an appreciable difference in accuracy or ES so now I just treat all LC brass as the same. 

For powder I would definitely give 8208 XBR a shot. It's been awesome with everything I've tried it in. It's typically a bit faster than Varget but slower than CFE or TAC. The accuracy makes it worth it though. I would also suggest trying the 73 ELD. Shorter than the 77 TMK, great accuracy potential, same BC and quite a bit cheaper.

[ecn515]

Thanks for the suggestions! 

 

I've gotten all my 77gr TMK's for free to date which is why I have been and will be using them for a while. 

 

Prior to these bullets I was loading 75gr Hornady BTHP Match rounds for the same purpose. Worked fine, but not free. When it comes time to actually pay for projectiles again I'd like to try the ELDx's as those are new since I've been using TMK's. 

[TonytheTiger]

Free bullets!?!? Yeah I'd be shooting those too.